Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Fourboot Speculation Thread

So, what do you think the 4th version of the Legion could/should be like?

Gut reaction... I'd like to see the "all star" version that has been discussed here on occasion. Boil down all the best parts of what we've seen for the last 50 years, and boot it fresh. We need new awesome villains in the first arc and fresh new art... maybe someone who renders in a photorealistic style?

Why not?

By the way, I'm a traditionalist. My first wish would be to bring back the "original" Legion, and clean up all the danglers. But this thread is for a new version.

new awesome villains? I would love to see the classic villains return that have not been seen in a while - Mordru, Universo, Fatal Five, and Dark Circle...they are too classic to be ignored.

I'd do something along the lines of Legends of The Dark Knight. A series of stories that would jump from version to version, from time peirod to time period. No strings attached to a monthly book. So every team could be used. And I would get only top talent so it would be a strong seller as TP.
And no monthly for a while.

Legion of Super Gorillas. It's a winner!

obviously, legion of the super pets.

Matter Eater Lad and Friends..Nuff said <_< >_>

Jamm takes over the Legion! With all the girls naked, it's sure to be a winner!

A funny animals version

or Legion of the Undead, Zombie, Vampire, Mummy versions of all boots' legionnaires.

Legion of Dead Karate Kids, written by Giffen, natch.

I actually think it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a fallow period without any regular LSH book for a while; A rush-to-fourboot is just a continuation of the same "churn it out" mentality that hasn't produced a great Legion story in their own book since DnA.

I'd favor seeing the Neoclassic (Johns) Legion as the main legion, but preferrably in a well planned and well executed form (whether the occiassional mini, a 50-80 issue planned run a la Starman/Sandman/Preacher, or the like... but I have no objection to seeing other Legions pop up when a decent project calls for it.

At this point, I am sick of feeling obligated to buy an ongoing series that isn't worth the cost, time and effort.

Legion swimsuit specials. That way, you don't need to have a story

Mike-Grell's Men of the Legion calendar (decade-long version)

I'd need it to be the coolest new take on those villains EVER.

Actually, what might be interesting to see is a minor villain get a major upgrade. Make some obscure lame character really powerful and tough to beat.

That's sort of what they did in the late 1980s/early 1990s with Starfinger.

There's already 24 issues of this written and ready to be drawn.

Do you think the Legion would work as good subject matter for the 2009 weekly (assuming DC does one)?

It depends. I still think DC would do better if they worked the Legion for a while as a series of special miniseries with established writers/artists, out of continuity, toying with the many teams LSH had. But a 12-page LSH story on a weekly title wouldn't hurt. But I just don't see the point or the financial reason.

I'd go for a Legion Of Tots as the new legion. Should be an All-Star Legion, featuring every legionnaire ever. No deaths ever, just good clean fun. Even the villains would be likable. Instead of the usual threats, a buck-toothed brainy, a pimply faced sun boy, and a bra-stuffing dream girl will deal with the Tantrum-throwing Mordru. It'd make a great one-shot, anyway.

Jesus

I don't want another new Legion, I WANT THE ORIGINAL BACK!!

They have been trying to "reboot" the Legion for years now and it has failed every time.

They have seen how popular what Johns did with the original version, why can't they get a clue and just BRING THE ORIGINAL BACK!!!

They have already set things up perfectly for a new series with the original characters in the Legion of 3 Worlds, at least right now anyway. Johns should just take it and run with it!!

Actually I didn't feel like Johns brought back the "original" team any more than any other version we've seen. I never heard of Saturn Girl surrepitiously peeking into prospective members' heads before. Or seen Lightning Lad acting like a total jerk (at least until the TMK team got their retcon job done on him.) Or seen any simmering xenophobia on Earth, and so on and so on. I enjoyed the Action story, but it was like seeing a good cover band, not like getting the real thing.

I guess as far as what I want? I am not even sure at this point I want anything. I don't want an ersatz Levitz era reset, I don't want a Whitman's sampler from all the boots, and I won't miss the basic setup of the threeboot. I'm sure I'll give whatever it is a try, but I don't think that we'll get anything truly like the "original." I don't know if a Legion title that doesn't hew to todays more cynical storytelling modes will be coming.

It seems every post-Crisis version has tried to overlay (or, if you're feeling harsh, graft) new concepts onto the Legion. For example, 5YL put the Legion into a dystopian SF setting.

Batch SW6. Centerstripe costumes. Obviously derived from a pattern in the founders, and I like the look. However, some costumes were obvious combinations of conflicting ideas (Ultra Boy - somehow, it still looked good enough).

In the reboot, rather than no duplication of powers, there could only be one member per planet. A fine idea, fitting with the new concept of the Legion as a force for peace, but it restricted the inclusion of established Earth Legionnaires.

The whole point of the threeboot was to do such an overlay: the Legion as the SCA and Vietnam War protesters. Shrinking Violet, with one of the best 60s Legionnaire names, got the boring "Atom Girl" instead to fit a pattern that didn't have to be forced.

At least in the reboot and threeboot, the new ideas didn't have to fit in existing continuity (though they still created conflicts with trying to make the new continuity resemble the old). They're not like retconning in strong xenophobia on Earth and claiming it's still the same Earth. Or thinking "hey, there are three concepts associated with Superman, and here are three characters associated with Superman..." and reducing the Legion founders to one-note characters.

[heresy] I'm more than comfortable with the idea of the 'Lad/Lass/Boy/Girl/Damsel' names being jettisoned. Live Wire, Alchemist, Triad, Apparition, Dreamer, Umbra, etc. all sound better to me. [/heresy]

Word. Threeboot never pretended to be 'the original Legion!1!11ZOMG'

Action Legion was, in fact, billed as the original pre-crisis Legion, just with a living Karate Kid, a Wildfire-who-used-to-be-Red-Tornado and some spastic hyperactive dude calling himself Garth, but not being the husband of Imra, father of Graym, much more adult and capable 'Garth' that I remember from pre-Crisis.

I can live with yet another damn reboot. But a big fat faker pretending to be a group I used to love? No. I'm not blind. Don't hand me iced tea and tell me it's soda pop.

I know it's a hard question to ask and get a single answer to, but what makes the Legion special and work? That's what they should use in the 4boot. Agreeing on that is the hard part!

For me, it's the family aspect of the characters, that they know each other so well and they *want* to be together, and to be a force of good. That seemed to be lacking in the 3boot.

I've said it before, but I have a great fondness for the 5YG - it's when I started reading LSH. That run had it's ups and downs, but you did get the sense of a shared history and that these characters belonged together and chose to be together. I still don't quite get that even from Shooter's take on the 3boot. We don't know why they're a group, other than they think old people suck and they're bored. Those motivations a group does not make (and certainly not with teenagers - I'm a teacher, I know what I'm talking about! lol)

I'm not talking about having the origin story rammed down our throats every year, but there was something *special* about them - they had grown up together and were comfortable with each other. The current team could be any generic super hero team really. Put Imra in a white bodice, slap some blue lipstick on her and you'd have a bad Emma Frost clone - she's having it off with someone else's boyfriend after all... I digress.

Wish list: not kids - adult legionnaires. Maybe with some newbies thrown in for training and to have that youthful kick. Some restraint, some war wounds that need thinking about.
Mordru had it right - Rokk was the most powerful Legionnaire, not because of his powers, but because he remains true to an ideal. There needs to be that concept of idealism.
There needs to be a backstory and and a history for that to rest on. I'm not sure that that can be achieved with a new start. It's been said time and again that the reason that the Legion IS the Legion is because of its history.
Maybe it's time to do a Star Trek: The Next Generation and acknowledge that history, but move even further away from it to have something new and fresh, but following in their footsteps?

I've decided that if there is a fourth boot it better include Cobalt Kid and Lash Lad as members. Because I'll be so perturbed that I'll be forced to include self-referential posts not only in the MMB but in the Legion forum as well--on a constant daily basis, and I'll need Lash to do the same.

Therefore, all of Legion fandom shall suffer with me!